2011 Lucien Crochet Sancerre Pinot Rosé – I’d never tasted this before but found it to be excellent, with raspberry notes in the nose, soft and tasty on palate, more like a wine from the south than from the Loire. Pretty in pink nicely sums it up.

Vilmart Champagne Cuvee Rubis – nice yeasty nose, smooth and clean across the palate, with good flavour depth and acidity.

2011 Tinhorn Creek 2 Bench Rosé – this BC wine is made from Cabernet Franc. Clean, soft and simple, a nice tipple on a sunny day with no pretension of complexity.

2009 Dom. Tempier Rosé – this Bandol is another fave of mine, but the pricing is a bit painful locally! Pale pink with currant and strawberry nose and significant spice which made the whole thing much more interesting and complex. Tasy, with a nice flash of sweet fruit right at the end.

At this point our definition of Rosé came under fire as we retired to the field of battle and took balls in hand, and some rather redder wines were opened to accompany the inevitable (yes, my team once again triumphed!).

2002 Jadot Beaune Clos des Couchereaux – while this showed some interest in nose, there was the undeniable whiff of TCA and the fruit stood fairly mute on palate. C’est dommage!

The group still had a thirsty look, so I went to the cellar and pulled a bottle blind on the.

1997 St. Cosme Gigondas – this wine is now mellow ands smooth, though still very dark, albeit with some orange at the edge) and showed typical leathery mushroomy nose with dark fruit. Time to drink up.